A Few Words About A few words about... Unforgiven -- In High Definition (1 Viewer)

[Douglas Monce]

I was a projectionist when this film came out, and at the time I thought the film looked dark. At first I thought the lamp was dieing. After the last show I put on a SMPTE test film and was getting just under 16 footlamberts. I have to assume that’s the way it’s supposed to look.

Doug

 

[Robert Crawford]

Right, this film was always on the dark side even during it's theatrical run.

 

[JohnRice]

I would say this is yet another example of how many viewers fail to understand not every movie is meant to be bright and crisp.

 

[JonZ]

My TV is calibrated, but the darkness impression I had with this disc was becuase of the DVI > HDMI connection issue that I wasnt aware of when I made that post.

Later I connected through component it looked much better, no brightness issues.

Unfortunately I only have 2 component inputs - one for my region free player and another for HDTV, so Im still DVI > HDMI.

I use different settings when I watch HDDVDs that have the brightness a couple notches higher.

 

[glenmulder]

Lets face it this is the best the film has looked, and maybe cannot get any better.

 

[ppltd]

And it looks darn fine in HD. This is a great film that had an admirable transfer,I have been totally satisfied.

 

[glenmulder]

Cannot wait for some more old Movies such as gone with the wind.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Fantastic. I can't wait to add this to the collection.


Actually, that's not a BD issue, just a *sony* issue (and Sony titles hardly represent the majority of BD discs, just like they don't represent the majority of DVD titles).

Warner will be using the same exact VC1 compressed stream for both their HD DVD and BD discs... so, player issues asside, you'll get an identical picture from either format with a WB title.

 

[Cees Alons]

Where's that quote from, Dave? What are you actually talking about? Why bring up Blu-ray and Sony in this discussion and at this point?


Cees

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Cees,

I had a copy/paste snafu. Just corrected the quote. I meant to respond to an earlier post in this thread (now it should be clear) and now it's been fixed.

thanks for alerting me to my quoting error!

dave

 

[PaulDA]

I just watched this the other night and found it very nice (certainly a giant leap from my VHS copy). I use my A2 in 480i mode over HDMI for SD DVD as my PJ handles the upconversion better than the player (I've tested it with a few discs) and I'd forgotten to reset it to 1080i until about 20 mins into the film. It looked very good nonetheless, but it was a tad softer than I expected (not that I expected animation-like sharpness, mind). I suddenly remembered the setting snafu and I changed it. The improvement was noticeable but not radical (I've only watched a few HD DVDs so far and the improvement has always been the same--noticeable but not radical). Some of this I attribute to the processing of my projector, the rest to the fact that I don't expect film to look like HD video in any case. In this case, the improvement may have been smaller than had I been watching the SD version as I suspect (though experts can feel free to correct me if I'm wrong in my suspicion) the 1080p to 480i to my projector is better than starting with a 480i source.

When I say "noticeable but not radical", I don't want that to be interpreted as "minimal" in terms of improvement. The improvement is certainly worth the effort to me but it consists largely of greater detail and better colour balance. It does not represent what I consider the radical leap from SD cable to HD cable, for example. And it is the relatively smaller scale of improvement, I suspect, that leads to some people's disappointment with HDM vs SD DVD.

But, to get back to the film, Unforgiven looks great on HD DVD (and presumably on Blu-ray) and I'm glad I waited to upgrade.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Yep. I've said that before... and even folks with 480p projectors will see an improvement wtih HD media like HD DVD/BD versus regular DVD. this is because you're not getting a "dumbed down" compression job like with the low-bit-rate MPEG2 on DVD. You're also getting full 480p color space resolution with the 480p downcovnerted HD signal... versus only half that with the color space on DVD.

 

[Keith Paynter]

And to follow up on what others have said about the film being dark, it's been a fairly common practise for videos and DVD's being shown on standard televisions to have their contrast, etc. fidgeted with to accomodate poor lighting conditions and poorly calibrated 480 line televisions in the average consumer's home.

People were also making comments about Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula HiDef release being darker than previous releases. It is in fact closer to the original than ever. Both this and Unforgiven are extremely well lit (and unlit for that matter) when they are watched in the appropriate environment. Turn of your lights, calibrate your televsions, and watch the magic. Don't do it in your living room with the lights on over your La-z-boy recliner. Both these films look absolutely amazing in the proper setting, and Unforgiven has such beautiful cinematography that it stands out like a well photographed sore thumb in HiDef.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Picked this up when Best Buy had it on sale for $7.99 a week or two back. Despite being sourced from an aging master, it's the best I've seen the film ever look. It is darker than the SD version I'd seen, but it works for the film. In the scenes where Clint resurrects his Man With No Name persona, the film depends on the shadows to hide the lines in his face and the gray hair in order to transport him back a quarter-century to his Western prime. It's really striking how much of a piece this is with Gran Torino thematically.

 

[Tim Glover]

Good to hear this still holds up Adam. I just bought this one myself on Amazon for $7.99. Should be here sometime this week. haven't seen Unforgiven in a long time. Looking forward to it!